This invention relates to reel mowers and the mechanisms used to attach or suspend reel mowers from vehicles. Conventional reel mower vehicles include a plurality of arm members that extend from the vehicle, each arm having a reel-type cutting unit attached to its outer end portion. The reel-type cutting units typically include front and rear skids or rollers that support or carry the cutting units across the surface of the ground during mowing operation. Blades of the rotating reel interact with a bedknife to cut grass or other vegetation with a scissoring action.
Conventional mowing vehicles typically drag the cutting units across the ground adjacent the vehicle, and the grass beneath the cutting unit is mowed as the vehicle travels forward. A yoke is commonly coupled with the outer portion of each arm, and is also coupled to the cutting unit. The attachment point of the yoke to each cutting unit is typically located near the upper front portion of the side frames of the cutting units. The rear portions of these conventional reel mower cutting units typically experience a large degree of bouncing over irregular terrain. Also, the front rollers of these conventional mowers tends to dig down into the ground during forward travel. The front roller therefore tends to resist rising up over a bump in the ground, and will instead tend to dig down into a hill or bump. In an attempt to solve the above problems, springs have been included for biasing the rear of the cutting unit downwardly against the ground, thereby equalizing the weight carried by the front and rear rollers during forward travel and reducing the tendency of the front roller to dig or dip. These springs tend to add manufacturing and assembly costs to the vehicle. Furthermore, these springs typically must be released or otherwise detached to allow the cutting unit to be removed for service or repair, thereby complicating the removal process.
Reel mowers cut properly only if the reel to bed knife clearance is properly adjusted. Also, to produce an even cut, it is necessary that the height of cut be properly adjusted. Both of these adjustments require the person making the adjustment to access the bottom of the cutting unit. Specifically, a typical procedure for adjusting the bed knife clearance involves placing a single sheet of paper between the reel blade and bed knife and turning the reel by hand to cut the paper. The quality of the cut across the single sheet indicates whether the clearance is correct. The procedure for setting the cutting height typically involves fastening a gauge bar to the bed knife such that the upper surface of the bar is parallel to a forward, horizontal portion of the bed knife and at the desired distance below the cutting edge of the bed knife. The front and rear rollers are then adjusted to come into contact with the upper surface of the gauge bar.
Typically, the cutting units must be removed from the mower vehicle or frame in order to place the bottom of the cutting units in the line of sight of a technician for performing reel to bed knife and height of cut adjustments; or the technician must lie on his back beneath or just in front of the cutting unit when it is raised to its transport position. Obviously, neither one of these procedures is desirable, with the first consuming much valuable time and the other being quite difficult to perform.